Teacher - student relationships across teaching careers of Turkish EFL teachers

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teachers' professional experience and students' perceptions toward the course and the teacher. Fourteen high school teachers of English as a foreingn language (EFL) and 436 students participated in the study. Teachers had a professional experience of either two years or less or twenty years or more. Results showed that experienced teachers were perceived by students as significantly more co-operative than new teachers. There was no significant difference between influence behaviors of experienced and new teachers. Students' perceptions of relationships with teacher had a significant effect on their affect toward the course and the teacher. Effect of proximity was higher for both forms of affect.